Start with reviewing what the students already know through asking them questions about the previous chapter and then using that to relate it to the new material
What was Roman civilization like?
What were some of their accomplishments?
Do you think the Roman empire had problems?
What kind of problems would they have had?
Preview the main vocabulary for the chapter
Plague
inflation
barter
reform
I would first ask the students what they think these words mean, then go over the correct definitions and lastly have them copy the definitions down
Simplifying the Text:
I would take the time to highlight the text for the students, to show them the main points...
pg. 318 "Romes government became very weak. For almost 50 years, army leaders fought each other for the throne. During this time Rome had 22 emperors"
This would continue throughout the entire chapter making sure to highlight main points, and vocabulary words.
To also help simplify everything they are reading and enforce the main points I would create a self correcting multiple choice question (with only 3 choices) for every page in the text.
Visual Displays for the Text:
I would first like to make good use of the visual displays that the text provides. Taking the time with the students to look at and understand the visuals in the text will give them a reference to look back on while they are reading and hopefully allow them to make more sense of what they are reading.
I would also like to create a visual that could be hung up at the front of the room/on each students desk/and overhead of a time line of the important events that the students are reading about.
This could also be a good study tool because we could start with all of the events (that we compiled and agreed on as a class as important) and then I could take a few away each day and they would have to remember without using their own copy which events were missing.
I think this is an important visual because social studies text book sometimes overload students with numbers and dates that they think all are important but with the use of a time line monitored by myself they would be studying and learning only the important dates and times.
Some examples of dates I would use from this text would be
Wikki Postings
Wikki Activity
Presenting the Text:
Simplifying the Text:
Visual Displays for the Text: